Hyde Park Blast 4/5

After two hours of sweeping corners and helping set up for the races in 90-plus degree sunshine, I suited up with Kaiserhorse and a bunch (55? 60?) of other riders for the 30-minute 4/5 race. We had callups, but not like I've ever seen -- first went all the teams with 5 or more riders, then a select few presumably based on results, and then the rest of the field in alphabetical order. Somehow, despite throwing down a few decent results this year, I didn't make the cut and ended up with other "S"s near the back of the field.

No worries -- just a little assertive riding and in a few laps I was up where I needed to be: near the front, taking the inside lane through the hairpin (missed two crashes that way), risking the outside line up Shady Lane to secure the inside track on both the turn at the top and the sweeper back onto Erie.

Lather, rinse, repeat.


During the race a few riders attacked -- especially two riders from Ontario who were making a southward bike-racing weekend of it: Michigan on Friday, the Blast on Saturday, and Grandview on Sunday. They made the most of their race, attacking and counterattacking, countering their counters and keeping the field on its toes. Thanks for coming, fellas! 7Hills and Dayton did most of the chasing, which was just fine with me. I stayed out of the wind, watched which wheel I was on, and tried to gauge which moves might be dangerous.

With two to go the pace eased and everyone left up front got ready for the last corner and the final straightaway. Coming out of the square after the hairpin there was one more dodgy move and one more crash, leaving me with some space to make up. It ended up being too much, as a rider from Lexington took a nice win with a clean set of wheels ahead of Dave Steward (7Hills). I managed to make up some ground along Erie and turn what looked like 6th or 7th into 3rd by holding off Geoff Reynolds (Dayton) and Justin Ling (Jeni's Ice Cream). I'm still looking for the lung I left in front of the public library.

The podium setup was sweet, 2johns were rocking the house with good tunes and insightful analysis (exactly why did the 7Hills rider chase down a break with his teammate in it? I asked myself the same question in the middle of the race, but I wasn't going to complain), and the atmosphere was pure summer festival. I rolled home, showered, and came back for some OTR ale and to cheer on Nick, Chris, and Bret in the 3s. Big ups to Tank and Mitch for stellar work putting on a marquee event, and thanks to all my Darkhorse teammates (and friends of Darkhorse) for their hard work making it go so well.

Pictures are up at Jeffrey's site.